1932 Convention Report

              E I G H T E E N T H A N N U A L R E P O RT
REPORT O F DISTRICT NO. 3
Mrs. J. P. Ferguson, Trochu, Director.
It is w i t h mixed feelings of pleasure and disappointment that I present
t h i s my report of the activities of the A l b e r t a Women's Institutes in D i s t r i ct
No. 3 since M a y 1931. It is pleasurable to know that even adversity in one
of its most severe forms has been bravely faced and to a certain extent con­quered
by the vast majority of our Institutes, but there has been disappoint­ment
in that during the struggle some branches have fallen by the wayside
and some others have lost courage.
However, we cannot complain very much for it has been wonderful the
way in w h i c h our women have stood shoulder to shoulder and have given
so much time and assistance to those they found not so favoured as they
themselves.
In District No. 3 there art. fourteen constituencies in which are a total
of 98 Institutes, with a membership of 1832 reported. During the last year
five new Institutes were organized and eight have disbanded.
The new Institutes are Happy ' H i l l , U n i t y and Beaver Flats in the Red
Deer Constituency, M o n i t o r ( lone) in Coronation Constituency, Foreman ' in
Stettler Constituency. Unfortunately Happy H i l l was unable to withstand
the blasts and disbanded after holding six meetings. The other disbanded
branches are Lakeside in Lacombe- Ponoka Constituency, Zenith in Stettler
Constituency, Three H i l l s in Olds East Constituency and Hughenden Village,
Czar and N i t r em all i n the Ribstone Constituency.
F o r the second year this district offered two scholarships for general
progress in practical work at the Olds School of Agriculture. This year
these scholarships were won by Miss Ruth M c F a l l of E t z i k o m and Mr.
Robert E . K a i s e r of Red Deer.
The Institutes have been very neighborly and have helped each other in
various ways. It just so happened that the western part of the district was
not as hard hit by weather conditions as the eastern part. I cannot too
strongly emphasize the splendid response made by the Institutes in the more
favoured area on behalf of the needs of those in the drought are* is. Red
Deer Constituency sent a carload of vegetables to the Hand H i l l s Constitu­ency;
A l l i a n c e Institute was instrumental in sending two carloads of vege­tables
to the Youngstown d i s t r i c t : Blackfalds Institute contributed $ 10.00
towards a community car of potatoes sent to the eastern part of the province.
D u r i n g the year the Institutes h i v e all been very busy attending to local
needs. I note in several instances they have worked with the Red Cross
Society in relief work. Hand H i l l s and Olds West Constituencies are to be
congratulated on the fine s p i r i t shown by the Institutes in assisting those mem­bers
who lost their homes by fire and flood.
T h i s spring an appeal for garden seeds for the use of members in the
drought areas was. sent out. The response was far beyond expectations.
Seeds and money came pouring in, i n quantities never dreamed of when
the request was made. These were sent to the less favoured Institutes in
the southern and eastern part of the province.
In spite of a l l this extra drain on their resources most of our Institutes
kept up their usual line of work including the maintaining of wards in hos­pitals,
and rest rooms, cemetery work, finishing eom. munity halls and v i s i t i ng
the sick.